Card type information media of an IC card, a memory card and the like are small-sized, thin and light-weighted and therefore, excellent in portability, transportability and convenience and spreading thereof has been promoted in various fields.
IC cards are card type information media each of which is embedded with an IC chip in a plastic-made thin plate of a cash card size to be able to record information and spreading thereof has been promoted in fields requesting high security performance of finance, transportation, communication, distribution and acknowledgement and the like as in, for example, a credit card, a cash card, a card for a system of ETC (Electronic Toll Collection system), a commutation pass, a card for a portable telephone or an acknowledgement card or the like from reason of being excellent in acknowledgement performance and tamperproof.
With regard to an IC card, there is disclosed a constitution of fixing an SIM (Subscriber Identify Module) type card by providing a bridge at an opening portion of a frame card in, for example, FIG. 9 of JP-A-2001-357376. Further, there is disclosed a constitution of forming a recess portion on one side face of an IC carrier, or forming an opening portion penetrating both faces of an IC carrier in, for example, JP-A-2002-123807. Further, there is disclosed an IC card including a pattern, an embossment, a hologram film or a magnetic recording layer on a surface of a card case member in, for example, JP-A-2003-154778. Further, there is disclosed a method of printing an IC card in, for example, JP-A-2001-92255.
On the other hand, the above-described memory cards have been spread as record media of portable type information apparatus requesting transportability as in, for example, a digital camera, a notebook type personal computer, a portable type music player, a portable telephone and the like since the memory cards are small-sized more than IC cards and are easy to write and read a large capacity of information at high speed. As representative memory card standards, there are an SD (Secure Digital) memory card (there is a standard rectified by SD card society), a mini SD, MMC (Multi Media Card, which is a registered trademark of Infine on Technologies AG), RS-MMC (Reduced Size MMC) and the like.
With regard to the memory card, there is a description in, for example, International Patent Publication No. WO 02/099742A1, disclosing a constitution of a memory card including a flash memory chip, an IC card chip capable of executing a security processing, and a controller chip for controlling circuit operation of the chips with an object of promoting security performance.
Meanwhile, the inventors have investigated to achieve promotion of a function of an IC card by combining a function of an IC card and a function of a memory card. As a result, it has been found that it is an important problem how to make a constitution particular to a memory card, for example, an outer shape, a pin arrangement or an interface constitution or the like in an IC card.
It is an object of the invention to provide a technology capable of promoting a function of an IC card.
The above-described as well as other objects and a novel characteristic of the invention will become apparent from a description and attached drawings of the specification.